LAS VEGAS NEVADA, Jan. 7, 2008 - SanDisk Corporation, (NASDAQ: SNDK) the proven leader in flash memory, today announced it has begun to sample 12-gigabyte (GB)1 microSDHC™ flash memory cards to major phone manufacturers for testing and evaluation. The 12GB card represents a 50 percent boost in card capacity from SanDisk’s industry-leading 8GB microSDHC cards, which are currently available worldwide, and highlights the growing popularity of mobile phones with storageintensive features that include music players, digital cameras, video recording and playback and GPS capabilities.

“Mobile phones have become a key part of consumers’ lifestyles around the globe,” said Jeff Kost, senior vice president and general manager of the Mobile Consumer Solutions division at SanDisk. “What many people tend to overlook is the important role that removable storage cards play in enabling the key features of these fully featured mobile phones. In fact, many people are not even aware that their phone has a card slot which is why SanDisk recently launched its Wake Up Your Phone™ campaign.”

A 12GB microSDHC is ideal for storing large quantities of music, photos and video. For example, it will be able to store a combination of 1,500 songs2, 3,600 photos3 and 24.5 hours of video4.

SDHC is the designation for any SD™ or SD-based card that is larger than 2GB and adheres to the new SD 2.00 specification required for cards and hosts to support 4GB to 32GB capacities. The specification was developed by the SD Association, an industry standards board, which has also created three classes to define minimum sustained data transfer speed. These cards adhere to the SD Speed Class 4 Rating.

In addition to the microSDHC, SanDisk also offers a broad range of both embedded and removable storage solutions for mobile handset manufacturers and mobile network operators. These include iNAND™ and mDOC™ embedded flash drives; microSD™, miniSD™ removable flash cards; and SIM and MegaSIM® cards.

I've just taken a rough guess at when the 12Gb card will be available for us to buy... 4 months from now!

This is only based on how long it took for SanDisk to release their 8Gb micro SD cards since they announced them. Blueunplugged.com states SanDisk announced 6Gb and 8Gb micro SDs on the 27th June, and AAS announced that they were being shipped on the 27th October, saying that it's finally caught up with the "built-ins".

Let's hope I'm completely and utterly wrong and that it comes out much sooner than 7th May...

I usually find buying the 2nd highest capacity available is the best value so buying an 8gb when 12 becomes available will probably work out quite well. I bought my 2gb when 4 came out and it was cheap as chips

I find the concept of 12gb or even 16gb on a mobile simply mind boggling. I've 8gb at the moment of which I've used 50%, and that includes UK maps for Navicore, 6 x 40 minute episodes of Alias, 7 x 40 min episodes of Firefly, a 30 min home movie from a Camcorder and 25 albums. How would I fill 16gb?

Whenever I look at a microsd card and think how many GB is on it, I marvel.

You're not the only one!

I was in Paris recently and went the computer museum in La Grande Arche. They've got a disc pack for a CMX-600 (from the 1970s) in there, it has 11 discs in it and is 14 inches across, I've included a picture of it. The drive it uses was the size of a washing machine, and one disc pack holds a total of about 39MB.

I took the 4GB Micro SD card out of my phone and put it next to it and told my girlfriend that'll it take over 102 of those disk packs to fill the Micro SD card. She wasn't interested but I thought it was pretty amazing.

I was in Paris recently and went the computer museum in La Grande Arche. They've got a disc pack for a CMX-600 (from the 1970s) in there, it has 11 discs in it and is 14 inches across, I've included a picture of it. The drive it uses was the size of a washing machine, and one disc pack holds a total of about 39MB.

I took the 4GB Micro SD card out of my phone and put it next to it and told my girlfriend that'll it take over 102 of those disk packs to fill the Micro SD card. She wasn't interested but I thought it was pretty amazing.